Letter: How abuse investigators separated fact from fantasy

Simon Scott
Saturday 14 October 1995 23:02 BST
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AS A social worker working for many years in child protection, and recently with perpetrators of child sexual abuse, I felt a sense of despair in reading your article. It seems that the current system is stacked against the victims of sexual abuse.

The inference is that social workers who have undergone Ray Wyre's training (such as myself) are led into over-enthusiasm for obtaining convictions, and can somehow make children lay false claims. I do not believe that children who have not been sexually abused can be led to make sufficiently credible false accusations which will hold up to cross-examination, even by video-link, in the courts.

Of course the evidence must be closely examined. But those who work with the anger and pain of the children who have been abused, where the perpetrator has not been punished because of a lack of evidence, or because of legal technicalities, will know how important it is to avoid stacking the odds further against them by discrediting those who are seeking justice.

Hastings, East Sussex

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